BLIND, BLACK AND BLUE...R3 Sunday Feature...

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Blind, Black and Blue
Sunday Feature 18.3.2018. 18.45.

There were many real blind, black bluesman, scraping a living in the Deep South a hundred years ago. From Blind Willie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson on opposite street corners in Dallas to Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller in Georgia and the Carolinas, the early 20th century saw blind bluesmen playing everything from the lewd, raw blues of the juke joint to the God-fearing spirituals beloved of the new wave of Southern churches and with a musical legacy that's lasted through the decades.

How did this group of blind musicians, faced with all the disadvantages of race, segregation, disability and poverty, manage to achieve celebrity in their own day and leave such a lasting mark on the history of American music?

Gary O'Donoghue, who is blind himself, explores the elements of race and culture that made this phenomenon possible.

Every member of the production team who made this programme is blind.
Presenter, Gary O'Donoghue
Producer, Lee Kumutat
Sound Engineer, Peter Bosher
Editor, Andrew Smith.


BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks Bluesie. A programme on blind jazz musicians would be good as well.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

A preponderance of pianists?

BN.

[Alyn_Shipton]

S-A it has been known - me chatting to George Shearing about this and that including blindness... http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m4rsn
Unfortunately Jazz Library was canned by Radio 3 before we got to the Tristano programme I had planned to do, which I was going to make with Peter Ind but we had previously discussed Lennie and Eddie Thompson in the show I did with Peter - sadly not downloadable for some complex BBC reason I don't understand, but this was the programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00j4ht6/segments

[Jazzrook]

Blind, Black and Blue
Sunday Feature 18.3.2018. 18.45.

There were many real blind, black bluesman, scraping a living in the Deep South a hundred years ago. From Blind Willie Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson on opposite street corners in Dallas to Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller in Georgia and the Carolinas, the early 20th century saw blind bluesmen playing everything from the lewd, raw blues of the juke joint to the God-fearing spirituals beloved of the new wave of Southern churches and with a musical legacy that's lasted through the decades.

How did this group of blind musicians, faced with all the disadvantages of race, segregation, disability and poverty, manage to achieve celebrity in their own day and leave such a lasting mark on the history of American music?

Gary O'Donoghue, who is blind himself, explores the elements of race and culture that made this phenomenon possible.

Every member of the production team who made this programme is blind.
Presenter, Gary O'Donoghue
Producer, Lee Kumutat
Sound Engineer, Peter Bosher
Editor, Andrew Smith.


BN.

Many thanks, BN.
Also, on BBC4 TV(March 14 & 15, 11pm) 'Blues America' - (1) a look at the early years of blues music & (2) focusing on blues in the postwar period.

JR

[Serial_Apologist]

A preponderance of pianists?

BN.

I wonder if there's enough "material" to do a programme on Roland Kirk; or if there's sufficient interest.

[Serial_Apologist]

Thanks Alyn. Maybe someone with enough knowledge covering the whole history could do a series on blind jazz musicians, from the early times to today.

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

I don't think there was a (deserved) Jazz Library on Roland Kirk? If so, I don't remember it. I don't know if the number of pianists is down to a guided career direction and/or a heightened natural aptitude. But Tristano, Shearing, Ray Charles, Art Tatum, Tete Montoliu, Chris Anderson, Pete Jacobson, etc. And I had no idea until I looked at a listing that Marcus Roberts is blind. He attended the same Florida blind school that Ray Charles was much earlier at.

BN.

[Ian Thumwood]

There is a fantastic book about the blues guitarist Blind Willie McTell called 2Hand me down my travelin' shoes" which is probably one of the very best books about a musician I have read. It does go in to detail about his blindness and, from recollection, there is quite a lot of information about other musicians who were visually impaired. In McTell's case, I think he was not actually total blind and the author does stress that his blindness did actually have the effect of leading to him having a better education than many of his contemporaries would have received at that time.

The whole idea of these blues musicians living a hand -to- mouth existence is quite fascinating and I have always felt the stories do contain masses of false and exaggerated stories which served the purpose of enhancing the legend. The stories about Blind Lemon Jefferson driving a car always struck me as fanciful. However, they only serve to make the music more interesting .

With regard to jazz musicians, there is a preponderance of pianists which again, I have always felt has been attributable to their education and being steered towards this instrument. Locally, there used to be a good blind pianist in the Portsmouth are called Bill Cole. Jazzrook may have been aware of him. He had a reputation locally back in the 1980s. I spoke with him once when I first got interested in learning jazz piano and seem to recall he was rather like Shearing insofar that it was the harmonies which appealed to him.

http://michaelcooper.org.uk/C/bill%20cole.htm

Incidentally, I didn't not realise that 16 year old pianist / organist Matthew Whitaker is going to play the Pizza Express the London next month and this is probably the correct thread to draw this to the attention to this. I have seen him on a number of occasions albeit he was performing on an Hammond organ when I caught him both times. He is pretty amazing and a must if you like musicians like Big John Patton and Baby Face Willette. I have heard him perform with his own group plus in a jam session with Cory Henry ( Snarky Puppy) and Rhoda Scott which was hugely enjoyable. He has cropped up at Vienne on a number of occasions and his reputation is fully deserved even if I was not appreciative that he also performed on piano.

https://news.allaboutjazz.com/piano-phenomenon-matthew-whitaker-to-play-intimate-uk-dates.php

[CGR]

Many thanks, BN.
Also, on BBC4 TV(March 14 & 15, 11pm) 'Blues America' - (1) a look at the early years of blues music & (2) focusing on blues in the postwar period.

JR

Ah yes. They are repeats. I've still got these recorded on my Sky box. They are the sort of really good documentaries that one enjoys watching multiple times.